UpBSelect
by Ungulateman
Summary: Sometimes letting go is the hardest thing. Not for you, but for those who are left behind. One-shot inspired by "New Game".


Misheard Whisper wrote a very similar story to this called "New Game". It's basically their idea; I just wanted to try something similar in my own style. All credit to Misheard Whisper for the concept. :)

_Warning! Deleted data can never be recovered!_

_Are you sure you want to delete all data?_

Garchomp

Wow, I do _not _like where this is going.

But still, are you serious? Lettin' go like this? You should probably get your head checked, bro. No sane person would just up and leave an awesome group like us. What are you gonna do, anyway? "New Game"? What does that even _mean_?

Really? I mean, dude, we had some awesome times together. I remember when we first met – you were so pissed off about how I wouldn't use ya real name, dude. How about thrashing Cyrus? He was all like "MWAHAHA I TAKE OVER THE WORLD" and I was all like "OH NO YOU DIDN'T" and then he ran away. Then we captured a _god_. That was so damn slick its like your life's made of grease.

Remember me kicking Cynthia's Garchomp's ass in our big finale? Remember that at least, man.

…

…Please, dude. Please don't go. I don't wanna be alone.

…

Lucas?

**Gyarados**

Lucas, this won't work. You can't leave me alone. You know what I am and what I do. Garchomp? He can control himself; your training managed that at least. The others aren't threats to the public, even uncontrolled (at least, it'd only take a police officer or two to stop them if they attacked, and they wouldn't do that anyway).

You caught me during a rampage. I'd done so much damage, and you stopped me. You paid for the repairs out of your own pocket for me, and claimed I could be trained and controlled properly. You saw it in my eyes, you said.

I'm a monster, and you made me normal. I battle the real me every day, and you being there by my side lets me win. I can't do it on my own.

…

Do you really think there's a market for volatile Gyarados out there? The only people who'll want me are battling Trainers, and they'll push me too hard (not like you), and I'll snap and…

I'm going to die one day, Lucas, I accept that, but you leaving will make a lot of others die in the process. I don't want that on my conscience. You don't either.

I can see it in your eyes.

**Roserade**

I don't get your problem, Lucas. I know you have one. You're not normal, and I won't pretend you are. That's not good enough for me. I have to know, and you won't tell me.

When we first met I thought it might be autism, but you seem too socially adjusted for that. It's the little things, but I can tell that isn't your issue. Cyrus, on the other hand…

I suspected schizophrenia for a while, but then you started talking about having crazy dreams that were pretty boring as far as I could tell. Take two real-life events and throw them together, that's how most dreams work – and that's what all your dreams were. Your real-life events were just interesting enough for the dreams to be weird.

I even guessed depression, but you were too damn happy too damn often for that to be true, even if you did seem to suffer from it sometimes. It was a shot in the dark, to be honest.

…

I remember you talking to the others about how I'd been the twenty-ninth Budew you'd caught, looking for the perfect one. I'm not perfect. Mentally, I'm cowardly (I can only fight because you're there for me), irrational (you do the logical thinking for me) and my self-esteem is horrible (but you were always there to make me feel better).

Physically, I guess that trick where I heal when you put me back in my Poke Ball is nice, but for I don't have any poison spikes like other Roserade. Those things are absurdly useful for self-defense, way better than some crummy ability that negates status effects. I don't get your insistence that I'm a good fighter. It's Garchomp and Infernape who are perfectio-

…Okay, now I feel like an idiot for missing your real disorder the entire time.

Perfectionism. That's why you kept me, and it's why you're letting me go.

We're not good enough for you.

**Alakazam**

I'm psychic. Doesn't mean I can see the future.

Yeah, I was surprised when it happened. We all were; I could read it on their neurons.

It's an entire new level of language in the brain, you know. It's like listening to music from across an ocean and trying to write it down note-for-note, but what little snippets you get are so rich that they almost make you weep.

_Note to self: Don't get a Psychic-type next time._

Seriously? I'm offended, Lucas. I trusted you enough to not try and look into your brain. I'm only reading it now because I don't trust you any more.

_Stupid 5000 IQ bipedal fox-thing._

Again, I'm offended. More by "thing' than "fox", but neither is a very nice way to describe someone who can liquefy your brain with a thought (not that I plan on it, even now).

I don't know how you humans got that 5000 IQ measurement from, but okay. What does that even mean? You don't know. I'll tell you –

You're smart?

Nothing. It's a number which is so out of proportion to the norm they may as well have picked infinity, or zero. Those numbers are just as relevant in the real world.

And none of those IQ points told me what you were going to do. I don't see the future, because it's people like you and me who _make _it.

Luxray

Why do you abandon our pride, Lucas? None of us defeated you. You are young, fit and strong, as is your mate, and the fourteen of us are no longer threatened by the strange men and women we fought. We stopped them, we found the three Avatars of Space, Time and Destruction, and you caught them.

…

Did you think they were the real Gods? I'm surprised, Lucas. You're smart, not like me – the Gods cannot and will not be caught by anyone, even you. They do enjoy the company of humans, however, so they form the Avatars you now control and live alongside them.

It's only a few decades – hardly anything to them.

…I know I am not very smart, not like Alakazam or Infernape. You love me anyway. I am loyal, and I will never give up.

So why do you give up now? I admit it – I don't understand. Please, just tell me.

Could it be…are you an Avatar? You enjoy our company. You live alongside us. To us, you are as a God.

I suppose this is hardly anything to you.

**Infernape**

…I'm not going to blame you for moving on, Lucas. I'm not going to whine at you for leaving us. I won't complain about you giving up on us.

My beef lies with you getting rid of us _to do the same thing all over again_. That is the part which sickens me, that is the part which makes me want to destroy you, that's the part which makes me cry…

I just don't understand it. It must have been some sort of sadism that let you find joy in making us do what we did and then _destroying _it. Even now, I enjoy what we had together, but now I see it from a new, corrected perspective, like a bird that can see its hunter mimicking a call.

I hope you never do such a horrible thing to those like us again. It breaks my heart to think of all those who have and will suffer from your machinations.

But I know you will.

Deleting all saved data…don't turn off the power. 


End file.
